Dr. Tim Mullican
Professor of Biology
Co-chair of the Department of Biological Sciences
timullic@dwu.edu
Website - myweb.dwu.edu/timullic

Dr. Mullican has taught at Dakota Wesleyan University since 1989. He is extremely proud of the hundreds of nurses and allied-health professionals that have received their education at DWU. His research expertise is mainly concerned with small mammal ecology and has published more than 10 articles in professional journals.

In 1992, he discovered a population of Merriam’s shrews in Butte Co., which was the first time it had been recorded in South Dakota. His main hobbies are building custom-made muzzleloaders, hunting with blackpowder rifles, and playing with Andy, his yellow lab.
 

Dr. L. Brian Patrick
Assistant Professor of Biology

Dr. Patrick joined DWU during the fall 2009 semester. His research interests include: human influences on biological communities and ecosystems; biodiversity inventorying to catalogue the abundance and distribution of species of the Great Plains states – particularly spiders and beetles; and recycling and waste management issues in the community and the state.

As part of his interest in cataloguing the biological diversity of the Great Plains states, Dr. Patrick has established the South Dakota Spider Survey (SDSS). The goals of the SDSS are: 1) to document the diversity of the spider fauna of South Dakota; 2) to document the distributions and abundances of these spider species within the state; 3) to educate students and the public about spiders and their ecological roles in the various habitats in the state of South Dakota; and 4) to establish a repository for specimens from the Great Plains states for education and research purposes. Everyone is invited to participate! Just contact Dr. Patrick by phone or e-mail to ask how!
  

Dr. Anthony B. Cole
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Dr. Cole joined the DWU community in the Fall of 2004. His research involves trying to understand the environmental and genetic factors that influence the pathogenicity and host range of plant viruses. As a graduate student in Dr. James Schoelz’s lab at the University of Missouri in Columbia, he found that the hypersensitive response, HR, of Nicotiana edwardsonii to Cauliflower mosaic virus, CaMV, can be genetically separated into resistance and necrosis traits that are derived from two different plant species: resistance from N. glutinosa and necrosis from N. clevelandii. (N. edwardsonii is a solanaceous plant that originated from a cross between N. glutinosa and N. clevelandii.)

Dr. Cole has also shown that the gene for resistance to CaMV in N. edwardsonii segregates independently of the N gene which conditions resistance to Tobacco mosaic virus, TMV, in N. glutinosa. Furthermore, they were able to show that the resistance to TMV in N. edwardsonii is temporally regulated with older plants being more resistant to TMV than younger plants.

Current research in Dr. Cole’s lab involves identifying a new TMV resistance gene in N. tabacum (tobacco) that, unlike the N gene, segregates recessively and lacks the HR observed in the classical N gene response to TMV infection. We are also attempting to characterize and isolate another TMV resistance gene from another Nicotiana species that is not temperature sensitive. The N gene can be inactivated at temperatures above 27°C. However, this gene is still fully active and confers resistance to TMV at temperatures above 32°C.
 

Bob Brown
Adjunct Instructor

Brown joined the staff at DWU in 2007, and teaches Wildlife Management (Bio 325).

His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife and fisheries biology from South Dakota State University, Brookings, and a master’s degree in biology from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. His thesis in graduate school was on mercury contamination in birds from a polluted watershed in western South Dakota.

His professional background has been entirely with the Wildlife Division of the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department. He began as a conservation officer in 1972 in Britton. In 1978, he transferred to Chamberlain and held the positions of assistant regional law enforcement supervisor, regional game management supervisor, regional supervisor and boating law enforcement administrator. He retired from the GFP in 2008. His hobbies include hunting, fishing and music.

Julie Olson
Adjunct Instructor
(605)995-3034
julie.olson@k12.sd.us

Olson joined DWU in the summer of 1998 teaching biology and microbiology. She teaches microbiology during the summer and has taught human physiology, environmental science and general biology at DWU. Her main accomplishments include the development of the environmental science class and integrating technology into the science classroom for MHS.

She was awarded the National Assoc. of Biology Teachers Teacher of the Year award in 2005 and is a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. She is also on the board for the state of South Dakota’s Science on the Move mobile science lab helping develop curriculum and training teachers to utilize the resources available. Her main hobbies are TaeKwonDo, reading, and traveling.
 

Mark E. Steichen
Adjunct Instructor
masteich@dwu.edu
(605) 539-9148

Mark Steichen began teaching at DWU in the summer of 2008. He is also the biological sciences instructor at DWU’s Huron Community Campus. His courses include microbiology, chemistry, anatomy and human physiology.

Steichen has previous teaching experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil where he established a microbiology laboratory and taught classes at a pharmacy school. He also taught science courses at Capital University Center in Pierre. Steichen has 15 years of experience in the health, environmental and natural resources fields with the State of South Dakota in Pierre. He also operates a crop and cattle farm in Jerauld County.
  

Dr. Robert Tatina
Professor Emeritus

Dr. Tatina served as a leading faculty member at DWU from 1975 to 2007. He is currently the editor of the Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science and the author of some 25 notes and articles about prairie ecology, South Dakota flora and science teaching. His current research interests focus on forest plant community structure and composition. A discussion with him was published in the Summer 2007 issue of the Wesleyan Today.